King Charles III and Queen Camilla kick off New York trip by honouring victims at the 9/11 Memorial

King Charles III and Queen Camil­la kicked off their trip to New York City on Wednes­day with a vis­it to the Na­tion­al 9/11 Memo­r­i­al, where they ho­n­oured vic­tims of the 2001 at­tacks dur­ing a wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

The stop was part of a busy swing through the city mid­way through the roy­al cou­ple’s four-day trip to the U.S. to mark 250 years of Amer­i­can in­de­pen­dence. It’s the first trip to the Big Ap­ple by a reign­ing British monarch since Queen Eliz­a­beth II vis­it­ed in 2010.

The king and queen ar­rived by mo­tor­cade and were greet­ing by var­i­ous dig­ni­taries at the memo­r­i­al. They were ac­com­pa­nied by for­mer New York City May­or Michael Bloomberg while walk­ing to one of the para­pets ring­ing the two pools, bear­ing the names of the vic­tims of the at­tacks. Charles laid flow­ers on the para­pet.

The roy­al cou­ple then shook hands and spoke to a line of peo­ple, in­clud­ing fam­i­lies of vic­tims of the Sept. 11 at­tacks and first re­spon­ders. Some rel­a­tives held up pho­tos of their lost rel­a­tives. Al­so in the line were New York City May­or Zohran Mam­dani, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New Jer­sey Gov. Mikie Sher­rill and oth­er dig­ni­taries. The cer­e­mo­ny came ahead of the 25th an­niver­sary of the at­tacks.

The queen is then sched­uled to vis­it the New York Pub­lic Li­brary, where she’ll de­liv­er a new Roo doll to add to the li­brary’s famed col­lec­tion of Win­nie-the-Pooh stuffed an­i­mals, as the beloved chil­dren’s char­ac­ter turns 100 this year.

The five dolls cur­rent­ly on dis­play -- Win­nie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tig­ger, Eey­ore and Kan­ga -- were the in­spi­ra­tion for the char­ac­ters in A.A. Milne’s chil­dren’s books. They were owned by the Eng­lish au­thor’s son, the re­al-life Christo­pher Robin, in the 1920s. The dolls were do­nat­ed to the li­brary in 1987 and are a cen­tre­piece of the li­brary’s col­lec­tion of chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture. Roo, in the books, was a small brown kan­ga­roo and son of Kan­ga.

The king, mean­while, was ex­pect­ed to vis­it an af­ter-school, ur­ban farm­ing ef­fort that works with young peo­ple af­fect­ed by food in­se­cu­ri­ty, as well as meet lat­er with busi­ness and fi­nan­cial lead­ers in Man­hat­tan.

The roy­al cou­ple are then ex­pect­ed to at­tend a re­cep­tion for the King’s Trust, a char­i­ty Charles found­ed in 1976.

The four-day trip is Charles’ first state vis­it to the U.S. since he be­came king. His moth­er, Queen Eliz­a­beth II, made four state vis­its to the U.S.

Mon­day, the king and queen joined Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and first la­dy Mela­nia Trump for tea at the White House.

On Tues­day, Charles and Trump had a closed-door meet­ing in the Oval Of­fice. The king then de­liv­ered a rare speech be­fore Con­gress -- the first by a British monarch since his late moth­er in 1991 -- fol­lowed by a for­mal state din­ner at the White House.

The mon­archs are al­so ex­pect­ed to make stops in Vir­ginia be­fore wrap­ping up their U.S. vis­it back at the White House on Thurs­day with a for­mal farewell from Trump. Charles then trav­els so­lo to Bermu­da on his first vis­it as king to a British over­seas ter­ri­to­ry. —NEW YORK (AP)

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Sto­ry by PHILIP MARCE­LO | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

As­so­ci­at­ed Press writer Dave Collins in Hart­ford, Conn., con­tributed to this re­port.